In regard to the out of work

[Bleep]

it is a disappointing thing to try and help fellow DC team members and not get results.
This is in relation to the stickie for the unemployeed on this board
Some time ago I posted a little home business that would make a little money to help out those that have been out of work and really feeling the money pinch. This was very simple and everyone here had all the equipment for the business except maybe a turntable. I had 4 PM's relating to my post, 2 of which called me a moron that this would never work. I was really disgusted with the 2 responses so I decided to see just how much money I could make remastering old albums and burning them to CD on a per customer basis. I was just doing this as a hobby because I know how much people love there old music and the records were pretty much worn out. I actually had more business than I wanted and was turning down a lot of customers because I am retired and value my free time,. I decided to see how far I could take the little business so for the next 3 weeks I spent all the money that I made on more equipment (turntables) as I had plenty of computers. I placed 1 small add in the local newspaper, in 1 more week I had to hire 1 person to help me out and let him work at home. His computer and my turntable and I purchased the software and the blank CD's for his machine he took 80% and I took 20% of his work product, we were getting overloaded so I recruted one more person with the same deal. They both have made some money and I have made some also, this week I made $840.00 and because the newspaper is regonal the business is comeing in from all over the place. This is just to remind everyone out of work or that needs some extra money that sitting around and whining is not the way to go. Look at every opportunity that is out there, those of you who live in a large town with some incentive and a lot of work can make a going business for little investement.
Just remember that if you do tommorrow what you did yesterday you will be in the same boat a year from now.
I wrote this some time ago and decided at that time not to post it so it is a little dated, I will only say that the business has now grown even more.

Bleep

 

[Assimilator1]

Hey glad to hear of a success story mate
For what its worth ,congrats

Btw its sad to hear of people in the DC forum who would berate you & your idea ,hardly encouraging to say things like that!

 

[ProviaFan]

That is an excellent idea!

Some time ago, I had thought of doing a similar thing (except for old photos instead of records) but had not followed through with the idea due to a lack of room in the little house and lack of knowledge about insurance and other requirements to have a home business (not to mention that I live on a busy rural highway; the driveway is inconvenient, somewhat dangerous if you're not used to it, and lacks any parking space).

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that your idea is working out well for you.

Oh, and don't let anyone tell you that what you're doing is not legal. You're perfectly ok, as long as you're not saving digital copies of the records for yourself.

 

[SinfulWeeper]

I have an old 8 track player in storage and a few turntables.

WTF did I not think of this before. Especially considering I already have the software that takes out hisses and noise (never used it though).
Providing my software does not work out all that well, do you have any other software recommendations?

 

[Bleep]

I use Golldwave because it is cheap and easy to learn.
About the Photo redoing. That is funny in the respect that I started a business that does that several years ago, their are tons of old photos out there to be repaired and printed out. I sold that business to a local photo studio and they are doing pretty good.
This one is getting a little to big and difficult to handle taking up to much of my time so I am thinking of selling to one of my workers.
When you think about it, it is sad that I can make a sucess out of almost nothing and others have a hard time making enough to buy a hamburger at Wendys.
Bleep

 

[Smoke]

Here's to ya', Bleep! :beer:

Great idea, thanks for sharing and I completely agree with your motivational point.

 

[Wolfie]

Congrats Bleep. I think this is an awsome idea. And I am glad to hear that it worked out as well as it did. I just wish that some people would look at this and see that anything can be done, you just have to find what people want and offer it to them.

Wolfie

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Another good idea would be to buy a dvd buner, and one of those usb video input gizmos a few cakes of blank dvds, and slim cd-jewel cases, and make dvd's out of peoples old home movies, and vhs cassetes, so they can preserve thier old media. you can get $10-$20 for converting home movies per dvd easy. at about $1 per blank, and $.25 per jewel case, it wouln'dt take long to pay for your initial out of pocket costs and start turning a profit.

edit: now that I think about, that's quite a way to make some extra cash (me thinks as I look at prices for said equipment to get started) An add in the paper figured in w/initial out of pocket costs and $10 per dvd, if you convert some 400 items to dvd's that's about $3000 profit. and I'm sure people would pay $15-$20 easy to convert their home movies to dvd, my mom converted her childhood 8mm movies to vhs and paid $60 for 2 copies. (she only had one vhs player/recorder and couldn't make her own copies)

 

[ICXRa]

Wow what a great idea! I must have missed your original post Bleep. Time to dust off the Denon DP-51F

 

[Orange Kid]

One question.

Is this legal?

 

[ICXRa]

As long as you are not also making copies for yourself I can't see why it would be any different than making a cassette copy of a LP you own like so many of us used to do.

 

[Blooz1]

This is a great idea Bleep! Thanks for sharing with us! I've been looking for something I can do out of my place, as a serious illness precludes a formal "job".

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: Orange Kid
One question.

Is this legal?

It depends on the state, many states have taxes on services such as these (Texas is one of them) but like the people who process your pictures, it's the same basic premice, you can't keep copywrited material for personal use.

You can however, convert media, as long as it's for the sole owners of the original copyright. Basically the same as taking your cd's and copying them to cassete to use in your cassete deck in your car, as long as you aren't distributing copies you're within your rights to make copies for personal use. Just make sure you're aquanted with copyright laws, and if you have doubts as to it's legality, research first to make a knowledgable decision.

I'm not a laywer and don't claim to be, this is merely my intreptations of the law, any lawyers feel free to correct me.

 

[LANMAN]

Man, I hope the politicians in Georgia don't read this.... :Q


GOOD FOR YOU Bleep!!

That's great to hear stuff like this!! Going gets tough, the tough just work harder!!


There is NOT one day that goes by when I forget to thank God for what I have!! Why, you might ask... because I know it can be taken away from me just as fast! That goes for anyone else reading this post.

For those that have a comfortable life, how big or little that may be, help those in need, do what you can, and if you can't do anything, then at least give some words of encouragement!
You never know... it just maybe you posting for help next time. ..:|

Bleep's making a difference! It's called "opportunity". I believe the guy who invented Velcro, was called a moron too. Imagine if that was patented? :Q

You da' man Bleep!! God Bless You!!

--LANMAN

 

[Wiz]

Referring to taxes...

According to my understanding of the WTO taxes can not be charged for online commerce.
If your country is a WTO member you may be able to transact the business online and keep from charging / paying taxes.
YMMV, and you may want to seek the advice of an accountant who is knowledgeable in this area.
Most places will let a small time / part time operator slide if it's a "side job" kind of deal.

 

[Bleep]

It is legal because the customer owns the record and under fair use he can copy it for his own use.
The DVD movie conversion is a really good idea.
The prize goes to the thinker and observer turning into a doer. Just think how many times you have heard someone say "I sure wish someone would(fill in the blank)." This may lead to a opportunity that turns out to be really good. There are a million opportunities out there just for the taking with little or no investiment and no risk.There are so many guys here that have been out of work and need money this is a cheap and easy way to make a little or a lot.
You see if you only make $10.00 that is $10.00 more than you had before. This will never make you rich but can feed you and your kids if you dont eat it all the food yourself.:music: Another thing is that a lot of self esteem is lost to those out of work and making a little money will bring back some of that self worth that is so necessary in life.

Bleep

 

[Wellcky]

SinfulWeeper Nero does a pretty good job of removing hisses & crackels and it even has a recorder with it. I've converted quite a few LPs for OrangeKid and they turned out pretty well. Nothing like the Beatles on vynal to CD. Plus they even have vynal looking cdrs so
you can even keep that nostalgic look and feel.

 

[ProviaFan]

I've been doing a bit of research on the financial and legal side of things, which may or may not be simple, depending on where you live (I've not read enough about Indiana's laws yet to know whether this will be simple or a big PITA). Your local Small Business Development Center might have some useful information.

 

[Bleep]

This is a copy of a message that I sent to a person interested.


The legal aspects of this are simple, this is a home business that at least in my state requires NO licience and no city or state permits. The only thing is the sales tax issue which may or may not apply in your state. I live in Nebraska by the way. Sales tax does not apply here either because we have no tax on labor and that is all that is involved.

In most states home or home hobby business comes under completly different laws than a regular retail or store front business. Local zoneing laws usually do not apply to a completly service oriented business such as this. Remember you do not buy or sell anything but do a personal service for a fee and are not involved in any wholesale or retail transactions. You do not even own the material that you are working on.
This is no different than being a Ghost writer for a author that sends or gives you a rough draft or copy for you to edit,
I can see no legal problem that you could run into doing this business or one like it in your home. i cannot imagine any city or state that would require any type of liciencing or special permits to conduct a business like this.

Bleep

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Well... all is fine and dandy, but none of my turntables have audio out (straight to speakers only). I suppose I can make a plug that would work... but wouldn't that degrade sound quality?

As for that eight track player... the thing is huge and well burried. I am not certain if I want to dig it out just to find out it might have the same problems as the turntables.

 

[ProviaFan]

I've had some success connecting my parents' cheap tape deck/radio/amp unit to my computer through the unit's headphone out jack, into my SBLive's line in. Just be careful to start with the volume very low, and increase slowly, only as necessary. However, I don't think it would work to go straight from a speaker out to a line or mic in - that's a totally different cat(fish) to skin.

 

[Bleep]

SinfulWeepe:
Depending on how much guts you got it is easy to open the box and pick out the wires that come from the tone arm and reroute these to the outside of the case to a preamp. A cheap way to go is to get the RCA LAB 1200 turntable. I have seen them around on the net for about $80.00 it has que and preamps built in. Not the highest quality in the world but if you turn it on and let it warm up the speed is pretty close.
Bleep

 

[lobadobadingdong]

for those interested and I don't think there are any in my area who could "horn in" on my business locally, I just purchased a 2x Toshiba DVD -r Burner, the Package deal for 50 DVD-r's and DVD X Copy Express bundle and the USB media input (ADS USB Instant DVD) for 294.12 shipped to me (from tiger direct unfortunatly, maybe I'll get lucky with them and recieve all my order). I should get this monday, got a tax liscense request mailed to the state out monday 8/18. I plan on advertising in our "thrifty nickel" type thing (ours is THE Shopper) and it's delivered to every home within 8 or 9 counties. should be about $100 for a small add for 1 mo. figure to get about $20 for home movies to dvd, and $8 or $10 for old vhs to dvd conversions(hadn't decided completely on that price) I already have a 4 head vcr, and will just move it into my office (don't watch vhs movies that often anymore anyway) I may expand to conveting LP's to cd if there appears to be a market for that as well, but I'd have to find a record player(what a garage sale/antique store hunt that would be )

also make sure anyone else doing this has some kind of release form saying you won't keep copywrited material, and cover that you do not take responsibility for your customers to distribute illegal copies of copywrited material, or for vhs cassettes damaged in your vcr(same odds of problems as if they watched it on their vcr). Just to cover your a$$, from the laywers, and discruntled customers.

 

[Bleep]

lobadobadingdong :

Your thrifty nickle ad is a great idea, I did not think of that.

Bleep

 

[Mardeth]

Just wondering, if the town your in Bleep is so small wouldnt it be kind of mean to sell the company to thebecause people dont need this service very often (5-10 years?), after the first wave of customers there would almost no customers for a long time. So I think you should tell this to the guy and then let him decide if he still wants to buy.

I MIGHT HAVE NOT CONSIDERED A CRITICAL ASPECT SO DONT FLAME ME IF IM WRONG.